Beijing History for Beginners

Beijing history is boring? Not really!

Before visiting a place, it is always good to read about their past. Hence, I provide you with a very very short lesson on its History.

In the Chinese language, Beijing means "Northern Capital" literally.

Beijing first served as the capital of a united China in 1264. This was when Kublai Khan's victorious Mongolian army set up the “Great Capital” to rule their new empire.

After the demise of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in 1368, Nanjing ("SouthernCapital") took over the capital city status from Beijing.

However in 1403, the 3rd Ming Emperor, Zhu Di moved it to Beijing again and also gave the city its present name.

It was also during this time that the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and several other monumental landmarks were built at this time. Thus, the period was known as Beijing's golden era.

Beijing remained the capital into the Qing era till early 1900s.

However,during the chaos following the abdication of the last Emperor, Beijing was beset internally with battles between several fighting warlords.

In 1928, the Kuomintang moved the capital to Nanjing again renaming Beijing as Beiping("Northern Peace"). However, the Kuomintang was eventually defeated by the Communists, who declared the People's Republic of China with its capital at Beijing in 1949.

That’s how the story goes…